Martin having given them an end-point outline will undoubtedly have left miles of wiggle-room. All he has to have done is say "this person ends up on the throne" and they can take wildly different routes to get there.

Which is actually good for both sides- if there are differences between show and books, this means there will always be surprises for the audience who has experienced the series in the other medium.

Martin having given them an end-point outline will undoubtedly have left miles of wiggle-room. All he has to have done is say "this person ends up on the throne" and they can take wildly different routes to get there.

Which is actually good for both sides- if there are differences between show and books, this means there will always be surprises for the audience who has experienced the series in the other medium.

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Perhaps even greater differences than this. Now that Martin has the rumored 8th book planned, and several plot lines now diverge from the books, I can only see the differences growing over the next few years.

Martin having given them an end-point outline will undoubtedly have left miles of wiggle-room. All he has to have done is say "this person ends up on the throne" and they can take wildly different routes to get there.

Which is actually good for both sides- if there are differences between show and books, this means there will always be surprises for the audience who has experienced the series in the other medium.

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Perhaps even greater differences than this. Now that Martin has the rumored 8th book planned, and several plot lines now diverge from the books, I can only see the differences growing over the next few years.

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Now I think just the opposite - although there may be some big differences along the way, the endpoints should be pretty similar. The same major characters survive or die, the same big battles and outcomes and the same person on the throne.

Martin having given them an end-point outline will undoubtedly have left miles of wiggle-room. All he has to have done is say "this person ends up on the throne" and they can take wildly different routes to get there.

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GRRM and the writers spent about a week going over the future of the series last year, so I expect their outline of events is a bit more complex than that, but at this rate the last two seasons (particularly the seventh, which will have pretty much no written material to go off of; with the sixth I expect the writers will get access to whatever Martin has finished by the time they start writing it next year) will have broadly the same outline and the same final outcomes, but the texture will be different.

Winter is Coming reports that Tom Wlaschiha's agency in Germany has him listed as filming on Game of Thrones starting in August. If that's correct, Jaqen will make his return next season. Even before this report there was a lot of speculation whether he'll be the one to train Arya in Braavos. My guess is he will be, perhaps with Arya meeting the Kindly Man and him changing his face to reveal himself as Jaqen relatively quickly.

His method, maybe. If given hundreds of pages of text, he would be likely to do a page one rewrite of the material.

But his style? GRRM's style is functional and works, but it's nothing mindblowing or earth-shattering.

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OED: "A particular procedure by which something is done; a manner or way."

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I think you mean "method," then.

When you refer to "writing style," you're talking about the way Martin structures his thoughts and assembles his sentences. Hemingway has a short, declarative writing style. Dickens has a ponderous writing style. Tolkien has a pseudo-medieval writing style. Martin has a functional writing style.

Oh, I dunno. It gets pretty ponderous, particularly in Crows where he repeats the "9 children from Quellon Greyjoy's loins" line about 6 times, and the "What is dead may never die" prayer at least 4 times in the first chapter, plus the endless "King's Moot" screaching. Pretty ponderous to me, but I suspect due mostly to bad editing before publication.

Really not looking forward to either the Ironborn or the Dornish stuff in the next season (the latter also quite ponderous, IMO).

I do wonder if they'll dump a lot of the whole Ironborn storyline. I mean, they haven't even killed off Balon, despite Patrick Malahide not being used at all. this season and just the once (IIRC) in S3. Is that so they don't have to have the Kingsmoot story?

Perhaps if they're going to include the Victarion storyline, they'll just have him sailing out at Balon's behest?

^^^ That might be the simplest way to do it. There's presumably a big role for him to play once he gets to Mereen to get in line with all the other suitors, and I'm not sure if it matters if Balon is dead or alive. Although they did do the leech-burning scene and, IIRC, mentioned Balon Greyjoy's name as one of three usurpors (along with Robb and Joffrey). The other two are dead, and "two is not three" until "three is three". It will probably happen in passing, as there really isn't much else for the Ironborn to do at this point.

I'm curious if that anti-dragon horn will be used, considering the Horn of Winter never showed up. Aside from the occasional appearance of the Others and the shenanigans of Melissandre and Thoros, they seem to be downplaying the growing magical aspects of this world considerably.

I think there'll be a truncated Kingsmoot, although they could just play it that Yara returns home to find that her father has died and her uncle has seized the throne.

They established in season four that Daario has seized 93 ships for Dany, the exact same number of ships Victarion sailed with. Seems like a big tip-off that Victarion and his journey to Meereen are going to be cut.

^^^ True, I forgot about that. I wonder what their role will be down there. If Jaime isn't running about cleaning up the Riverlands and Bronn isn't off getting Lollies pregnant, what could they be doing? Perhaps Cersei ordered them to go down and protect Myrcella - or maybe bring her back to King's Landing, but then, where does that leave Arys Oakheart? Who has been protecting her up until this point?

Will Jaime ever get visited by his Aunt Genna and be told some curious things about his pedigree?

Jaime, sweetling, I have known you since you were a babe at Joanna's breast. You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg and there's some of Kevan in you, else you would not wear that cloak...but Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you. I said so once to your father's face, and he would not speak to me for half a year.

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In some ways, I'm actually kind of glad they're adding some things into the mix that weren't in the books. Keeps it interesting for those of us who know the story.

My guess is that Oakheart will be cut, or at least his role reduced, and Jaime and Bronn go to Dorne to try and get Myrcella back at Cersei's behest, although their mission could also partly be to smooth things over with the Martells, perhaps bringing the Mountain's skull with them to present to Doran Martell. It depends whether their mission is diplomatic or more clandestine.

Winter is Coming reports that Tom Wlaschiha's agency in Germany has him listed as filming on Game of Thrones starting in August. If that's correct, Jaqen will make his return next season. Even before this report there was a lot of speculation whether he'll be the one to train Arya in Braavos. My guess is he will be, perhaps with Arya meeting the Kindly Man and him changing his face to reveal himself as Jaqen relatively quickly.

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Jaqen is going to be pretty busy if he is both The Kindly Man and Pate.

^^^ True, I forgot about that. I wonder what their role will be down there. If Jaime isn't running about cleaning up the Riverlands and Bronn isn't off getting Lollies pregnant, what could they be doing? Perhaps Cersei ordered them to go down and protect Myrcella - or maybe bring her back to King's Landing, but then, where does that leave Arys Oakheart? Who has been protecting her up until this point?

Will Jaime ever get visited by his Aunt Genna and be told some curious things about his pedigree?

Jaime, sweetling, I have known you since you were a babe at Joanna's breast. You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg and there's some of Kevan in you, else you would not wear that cloak...but Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you. I said so once to your father's face, and he would not speak to me for half a year.

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As much as the evidence may point to Joanna having been raped at least once by Aerys, that quote is a clear reference to personality rather than pedigree.